Held by the Northern Virginia Writing Project (NVWP) every March since 1987, the Language and Learning Conference has provided the opportunity for over 3,000 teachers to share their knowledge and enthusiasm about writing and the teaching of writing. Centered on a guest speaker well known in the field of the teaching of writing, the conference also includes presentations by Northern Virginia Writing Project (NVWP) Teacher Consultants.
This year's keynote speaker will be Donalyn Miller. She is a sixth grade language arts teacher at Trinity Meadows Intermediate School in Keller, Texas. In her popular book, The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child, Donalyn reflects on her journey to become a reading teacher and describes how she inspires and motivates her middle school students to read 40 or more books a year. Donalyn currently writes a blog, “The Book Whisperer,” for Education Week Teacher and a monthly column for Scholastic Book Fairs’ Principal to Principal e-newsletter. Her articles about teaching and reading have appeared in publications such as Educational Leadership and The Washington Post.
The Language and Learning Conference has attracted as many as 450 teachers at one time to George Mason University for its all-day program. In 2006, The Language and Learning Conference was renamed the Bernadette Mulholland Glaze Language and Learning Conference, in honor of the conference’s founder, NVWP co-director Bernie Glaze.
The Northern Virginia Writing Project, a unit of the George Mason English Department, is directed by English Department faculty member Professor Paul Rogers, who is also a Senior Scholar at the Mason Center for Consciousness and Transformation and the Faculty Director of the Mason Center for Social Entrepreneurship.